1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a multi-hop communication technology, and, more particularly, to multi-hop routing between devices located in an extended beacon group in a wireless communication network based on distributed medium access control.
2. Description of the Related Art
A high-speed wireless communication network based on Distributed Medium Access Control (DMAC) specified by the WiMedia Alliance is a technology that supports various types of services by wirelessly connecting audio/video devices, computers, peripherals, etc. which are located at a short distance and in a single beacon group, and by supporting communication between small-sized multimedia devices which are conveniently portable and are operated at low power.
Generally, in high-speed wireless communication networks, connection, that is, communication, among two or more devices is initiated by the transmission/reception of beacons among devices which are present in a Beacon Group (BG) and which share the same Beacon Period Start Time (BPST) with one another. However, an Extended Beacon Group (EBG) which is the union of the BGs of all devices present in relevant BGs cannot set up the routes of all the devices using only single-hop communication.
That is, devices which share the same BPST and belong to the single BG can communicate with one another in a single-hop manner, but devices which belong to different BGs cannot set up their routes in a single-hop manner. Therefore, a new type of communication technology that allows two devices, which are present in an EBG and belong to different BGs, to set up their routes and communicate with each other is urgently required.